Tag Archives: Football

I’m writing in a state of bewilderment. I’m amazed when talented young people who have a better than average chance at greatness piss it away. I recently travelled back to Eugene, Oregon, for my once-per-year indulgence in the fruits of home: the beautiful forested scenery, Pinot Noir and elegantly prepared local fair enjoyed with friends and family. I’ve been calm. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened until last Thursday morning. We Oregonians are mild-mannered folks, for the most part, but there is one topic that can turn the greatest peace-loving hippy among us from flowers and joints to hate, fits of rage and potentially violent outbursts. I’m writing, of course, about the University of Oregon Ducks football team. So when I turned to the City Region section of the local newspaper, The Register-Guard, and found that our star quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli, who led our Ducks to the Rose Bowl last season was now the former quarterback, I was distraught. Why could this be, I thought? I read on. Apparently, he brought in on himself. The coach kicked him off the team after a serious of misadventures, getting caught driving like a jackass with pot in his glove box was simply his latest. Even in Oregon, a pot-smoking hippy State, anyone can get into trouble for such an offense…unless you have your “green card” of course. Even so, Masoli is fighting the charges.

Naturally, I thought of many internal attributes to account for the cause of Masoli’s behavior (i.e., irresponsible jackass who puts himself before his team, or simply thinks he can get away with anything) as Gill and Andreychik (2009) would expect. They note that antisocial responses to others are generally characterized by internal explanations. Inversely, external explanations (explanations that point to outside forces as having pushed a transgressor to their deeds) are generally accompanied by feelings of compassion and other prosocial responses. While I’ve read this article many times, and understand that external forces are likely to be present in many circumstances, even in the case of Masoli, I feel compelled to reject them. He has put our team’s standing for next year’s season in jeopardy, and in that part of the country, this is a greater sacrilege than back-washing into the Eucharist cup. Perhaps, in time, I will learn to forgive this nincompoop, but it isn’t likely to come soon. We will just have to see how the season turns out. Either way, I’m pissed.

Masoli stiff-arms latest charges : The former Duck quarterback pleads not guilty, hires a defense attorney and gets some free PR help

Getting Emotional About Explanations: Social Explanations and Social Explanatory Styles as Bases of Prosocial Emotions and Intergroup Attitudes

The vuvuzela, a plastic horn, has become the official villain of the 2010 World Cup. There was a debate about whether vuvuzela should be banned before the World Cup. Recently, FIFA president Sepp Blatter cleared the air on Monday, saying he fully supported the use of vuvuzelas and that it would be disrespectful for FIFA to come in and change an African tradition. It will always be difficult and controversy to make the banning decision. On the one hand, the vuvuzela makes life difficult for players and audiences, both at the match or watching from home. Players have trouble hearing the whistle or their teammates, audiences at home have trouble hearing the commentary on TV, and chanting fans at the match are drowned out by the monotonous vuvuzelas. However, as Trmon Zamba, a South African fan, said “It’s our culture. It can be loud, but it’s good for us supporters.”

People may wonder, dose every South African fan really enjoy the noise made by vuvuzela. Probably not. However, because the vuvuzela has been determined by the South African culture to be the “right” way to show fans’ supports in that situation, personal value and preference do not matter anymore. Psychological research has shown that the psychological processes that shape the effects of personal values on behavior are strongly affected by the social context in which people operate. These processes are strongly cultural bound. As previous research has showed, one of the best-known factors believed to moderate the effect of personal attributes is ‘situational strength’: when the social context provides uniform expectations regarding appropriate behavior, the situation is defined as strong. In strong situations, all people follow the same course of action, and there is little variation in behavior. Thus, let’s face it. The vuvuzela which is rooted in South African tradition has been considered as an appropriate way to show fans’ passion and supports in its culture. No matter people like it or not, fans of every team will keep blowing them delightedly to show support for their national teams in this World Cup.

But, really, I don’t mind it so much

Question of the day: Is the vuvuzela a cultural delight or just plain annoying?

By, Adam K. FettermanOne of the most anticipated matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup took place on the second day of the tournament. The US and England faced off and ended the game in a 1 – 1 tie. Both teams should be happy with the result. While the US is definitely happy, as they were considered the underdogs, England does not share the enthusiasm. With a one point lead, the goalkeeper from England, the game’s proclaimed country of origin, allowed an easily blocked ball to sneak into the goal off the foot of one of their US rivals, a country in which soccer has yet to catch on. The disappointment over the goal, and the subsequent tie with the little favored underdog, left despair on the faces of those associated with the team. Indeed, the news media and bloggers have devoted much space to writing and showing pictures of dejected England players, including goalkeeper Robert Green and injured star David Beckham.

The facial expressions depicted in these images can give us insight to what these men were feeling. When someone sees a facial expression of emotion humans automatically mimic the expression of positive and negative emotion (Dimberg, Thunberg, & Elmehed, 2000). Through these mimicked facial movements, we are able to recognize the emotion being expressed. Therefore, when someone sees a picture of a sad-faced David Beckham, then one can get an idea of how he is feeling in that moment. In fact, we may even be able to feel what he is feeling. Ruys and Stapel (2008) showed that facial expressions are indeed emotion messengers, but are also emotion elicitors. So, one may feel bad for Robert Green when presented with his saddened face. However, since facial recognition acts the same with positive emotions (Dimberg et al., 2000), a different emotion would likely be recognized on US soccer players’ and fans’ faces: Happiness.

At almost every major sports event there will be commentators giving their opinions on the predicted winners, losers, or favorites. People tend to give commentators due credibility for their knowledge of the game and sometimes experience. For the layperson however it may be better not to give the event much thought. This is true when making predictions on your own. In a recent study, Dijksterhuis and colleagues (2009) asked participants to make predictions about random football matches two weeks prior to the event. Three groups were used in this investigation. Those who were asked to guess performed the worse. Those who were asked to think about their answers performed better. But the group that performed the best was the group who thought unconsciously.

One exception however is that making predictions unconsciously without prior knowledge is not recommended. The participants who performed the best in the investigation also perceived themselves as relatively knowledgeable. Those who made conscious decisions with relative knowledge are said to not give proper value to relevant information, hence why they performed worse. People who are essentially asked to guess tend to do worse overall. So next time there’s a football, or sports match for that matter, it might be better to not give it much thought about whom will win.